Vito Corleone
| aliases = Vito Andolini Don Vito Corleone | film = | franchise = Godfather film series | image = | notability = | type = | race = | gender = | base of operations = Long Island, New York City, New York | known relatives = | status = | born = April 29th, 1887 According to his tombstone. 1892 The Godfather: Part II establishes that Vito Corleone is 9-years-old in the year 1901, making 1892 the year that he was born. This conflicts with information from the first film. | died = July 29th, 1955 | 1st appearance = The Godfather (1972) First actual appearance, although he makes a chronologically earlier appearance in The Godfather: Part II. | final appearance = The Godfather: Part II (1974) Final film appearance, but chronologically, it is the first appearance of the character. | actor = Marlon Brando The Godfather (1972) only. Robert De Niro The Godfather: Part II (1974) only. }} Vito Andolini Corleone is a fictional mafia crime boss featured in The Godfather novel and film series. He was originally played by actor Marlon Brando in the 1972 film The Godfather. Actor Robert De Niro played a younger Vito Corleone in the flashback vignettes from The Godfather: Part II. Overview Vito Corleone is the head of the Corleone crime family – the most powerful Mafia family in New York City. He is depicted as an ambitious Sicilian immigrant who moves to the Lower East Side of Manhattan and builds a Mafia empire. Upon his death at the end of the novel, his youngest son, Michael, succeeds him as the head of the Corleone family. Vito has two other sons, Santino ("Sonny") and Frederico ("Fredo" or "Freddie"), as well as a daughter, Connie, all of whom play major roles in the story. He also informally adopts Sonny's friend, Tom Hagen, who later becomes a lawyer and the Family's consigliere. While he oversees a business founded on gambling, bootlegging, and union corruption, he is known as a generous man who lives by a strict moral code of loyalty to friends and, above all, family. At the same time, he is known as a traditionalist who demands respect commensurate with his status; even his closest friends refer to him as "Godfather" or "Don Corleone" rather than "Vito". Vito prides himself on being careful and reasonable, but he is nevertheless willing to use violence when he thinks it is necessary. When his godson, singer Johnny Fontane, wants to get out of a contract with a bandleader, Vito threatens to kill the bandleader unless he lets Johnny go. Later, when movie mogul Jack Woltz refuses to give Johnny a role in a film, Vito has one of Woltz' prize horses killed and the horse's severed head placed in Woltz' bed. Wikipedia:Vito Corleone; Overview section. Biography Notes & Trivia * See also External Links References ---- Category:Characters Category:Godfather, The (1972)/Characters Category:Godfather: Part II, The (1974)/Characters Category:1887/Character births Category:1892/Character births Category:1955/Character deaths Category:Businesspeople Category:Mobsters Category:Marlon Brando/Characters Category:Robert De Niro/Characters